Masters of the Master Emerald
by hydrarianbeast
Summary: Bokkun, Knuckles, Tikal, Chaos, Rouge, Shadow, and a not dead Maria must defeat Eggman, who has created evil versions of Tikal and Chaos, who are set with the mission to destroy and replace the guardians of the Master Emerald.
1. Chapter 1

"Knuckles!"

I sat up extremely fast. "Release Chaos and Tikal!"

The figure that had awakened me fell down in surprise. "Gosh, what'd you do that for?"

I rubbed my eyes and looked at the figure. It was my least favorite little black robot, and it didn't help that he had woke me up in the middle of the night. "Bokkun? What are you doing here? Does Eggman have a message for me?"

"No. Why did you yell about Chaos and Tikal? Did you have a nightmare?"

I looked him over. For once, he looked genuinely concerned about someone besides himself or Eggman. "Yeah, I've had it a lot lately. The Master Emerald keeps getting stolen, and I try to save it by releasing Chaos and Tikal." I turned around to make sure that the gem was still located in its proper place. It was.

Bokkun looked away. "That's why I'm here. Eggman plans to steal the Master Emerald, and he means business. I don't have a clue what he plans to do with it, but I know he's creating the largest group of robots ever. Believe me, you alone won't be able to stand up to it."

I stood up. "How did you manage to come tell me this?"

He looked very ashamed of himself. "I came to put his new invention in place. It's called a chaos lock. It sets up a dome which anything with chaos energy is unable to leave. This was to prevent you from running away with it. I had to come set it up; it was the only way I could warn you."

"Why are you warning me?"

"Because Eggman may have done terrible things in the past, but this seems to be one of his worst plans ever. Plus, when I went to talk to him to see how I could help, he threatened to dismantle me to use my parts for something useful."

I was confused at this. Bokkun was one of Eggman's favorite robots. Why would he threaten to destroy him? I decided to let it go. "Well how do you want me to stop him?"

"You already said it; release Chaos. Then go find more of your friends to help guard the Master Emerald."

I gave him one last quizzical look. "Why should I trust you?"

"Because I'm telling the truth, and if you don't, you will lose the Master Emerald."

I sighed. "Fine, but be prepared. Angel Island is about to fall."

"What?"

I ignored him and turned to the Master emerald. I put both hands on it. "The servers are the seven chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The heart is the controller. The controller serves to unify the chaos." The Master emerald started to glow. "Release Chaos and Tikal!"

There was a blinding flash of light, and I covered my eyes. When I could see properly again, I saw that on either side of the Master Emerald was an orange echidna and water looking monster.

The orange echidna, Tikal, looked very confused. "Knuckles? What's wrong?"

I sighed. "What, can't I just wish to have some company while I guard the Master Emerald?" She looked at me. "Fine. Eggman plans to steal the Master Emerald and I'm going to need some help protecting it."

She nodded. "Well, we are willing to help. Right, Chaos?"

Chaos, the second he had come out of the emerald, had not taken his eyes off of Bokkun. Bokkun seemed a bit uncomfortable. "Got a problem, Blue Boy?"

He walked over, and laid his hand on his head. Bokkun seemed to try to struggle, but couldn't move. Chaos closed his eyes, and another blinding flash filled the area. I was unprepared for this one, and prompty fell into Tikal, causing us both to fall down and almost off the altar.

When I could see again, Choas had stood up straight again. Bokkun looked mostly unchanged, but there was one very obvious difference.

He was no longer a robot.

I looked him over very thoroughly. There was almost nothing different, except he was very clearly flesh and blood. He had been turned into a real chao.

Bokkun was just as stunned. "What did you do to me?"

Chaos turned to Tikal, and after a moment of silence, she explained. "You seem to have been a chao turned into a robot by chaos energy. Chaos reversed it, turning you back into a chao."

Before Bokkun could start freaking out, the ground started to shake. Bokkun hit the deck. "What's going on?"

"Chaos and Tikal are no longer in the Master Emerald, which is causing the island to fall," I explained. "It'll only last about a minute."

After the ground stopped shaking, that feeling of falling started, and soon ended abruptly with the ground shaking some more. Bokkun looked horrified. "Is it over?"

"Yes, now get up." He did so. "Now, do you know when Eggman will get here?"

"Three days."

I nodded. "Well, now would be a good time to start creating some strategy." I turned to Tikal. "How do you communicate with Chaos?"

"I speak or use telepathy, which is how he communicates to me," she said. "He is capable of other forms of communication, and the only reason he can't talk is he has no mouth."

I turned to Chaos, and he shrugged. It was true; he couldn't speak without a mouth. I thought for a moment. "I have an idea." I walked over to him and raked my knuckle across his face, right where a mouth should be. He stumbled back, and the hole in his mouth didn't stay.

I sighed. "Sorry. I thought it would work. What else can you do?"

He came over and touched my head. Thoughts flashed in my head, and I backed away. "What was that?"

"Chaos communication," Tikal said. "We've practiced deeply on communicating telepathically with each other, so we can only use it with each other. His second most useful form of communication is chaos communication, which is what you just saw. He uses chaos energy to put thoughts in your mind. He can't use it too often, though."

I nodded. "Does he have to touch me to do it?"

"No, but that allows him to use the least amount of energy."

"Okay, so we will only use that when absolutely necessary. Now, can you fight?"

She nodded. "I don't like it, but when I must, I must." She walked down the steps of the altar, and went around the back. When she came back, she was wearing brass knuckles. "I hid these here a long time ago. I'm glad they are still in such good shape."

I was a bit taken aback by this, since she is probably the most peaceful person I knew. "Okay. Bokkun, are you able to fight?"

He reached into his bag and pulled out multiple explosives. "You bet."

"Good. There isn't much to do but wait."

"Wait for what?"

We all jumped from the voice behind us. Standing next to the Master Emerald was Shadow. "It looks like you all are preparing for battle."

I sighed. "What happened to the days of peaceful nights? Yes, we are getting ready to fight an army that is coming to take the Master Emerald."

He looked at all of us. "Well, you all wouldn't be my first choice for the front line." He looked at Tikal and Chaos. "Who are you two?"

"I'm Tikal," she said, "and this is Chaos. Who are you?"

"Shadow." He looked at the Master Emerald. "It's intact. Why did Angel Island fall?"

"Because we're not in it," Tikal said.

He looked at them both. "I'm going to pretend like that made sense." He sat down with his feet dangling off the altar. "Well, since I have nothing better to do, I guess I'll help you all guard it. Eggman is the one bringing the army , right?" I nodded. "Good. I hope he'll make it a challenge."

I looked at us all. I would hate to admit it, but Shadow was right. We weren't exactly the worlds greatest fighting force. I shrugged this off. I had a job to do, and we were going to do it.


	2. Chapter 2

"Shouldn't he be here by now?" Shadow said, tapping his foot.

"He said he was coming today at night," Bokkun said. "Do remember he's transporting a rather large army. Why are you so eager for him to get here?"

I surveyed around the altar. Okay, nothing out of the ordinary. Yet. The Master Emerald was still in its place. The plan was to send Shadow and Me straight into the army, have Bokkun and Tikal attack from the sides and avoid the huge fighting, and position Chaos as our last defense right in front of the altar. It was the best plan we had come up with.

Tikal was currently meditating in front of the Master Emerald. She seemed to be mumbling to herself. Chaos was next to her, his eyes never leaving the horizon. After a moment, his eyes widened, and he pointed at where he was looking. Tikal's eyes shot open. "They're here."

We all got ready. I watched, and the first signs of robots started to appear. They kept coming. After about thirty seconds, I started to doubt our chances of winning. There had to be over a thousand robots, and not the kind you could flick and they'd break.

Eggman flew above them all in his little hovercraft, followed by a good couple hundred flying robots. He looked more focused than I had ever seen him. Usually he enjoys huge battles like this, but now, he wasn't joking around.

"So, Knuckles, I see you convinced my worthless Bokkun to help you." He smiled as he looked at Tikal and Chaos. "And you released those two. No wonder Angel Island fell. I was afraid the Master Emerald broke. Plus you have Shadow. It seems you are prepared to take a stand."

"You bet," I said. "There's no way you're getting through us."

"Oh, but I might not have to." He smiled at Shadow. "I could persuade Shadow to give the Master Emerald to me."

"Yeah right," Shadow said, smirking. "How do you plan on that?"

"With my newest helper." He pointed at one of his flying robots, and it opened up, and a girl rose up out of it. Wait, no, not girl; hedgehog.

"Maria!" Shadow yelled, his eyes widened.

"That's Maria?" I asked. I had heard the story of Shadow's closest friend. She had died sending him to earth. She was also supposed to have some seriously contagious disease. She was also supposed to be human. If that was her, how was she alive and a hedgehog?

Eggman laughed. "Ah, so you remember your old friend?"

Maria, or whoever she was, stared at Shadow in shock. "Shadow?"

Shadow suddenly looked furious. "How did you do this, Eggman?"

"Oh, I did nothing," he said. "My Grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, did it. Earlier on the day G.U.N tried to stop him, the same day that Maria held you escape, he had taken a blood sample from you and used it to see if he could turn Maria into someone like you. At first, it didn't work, but after she was shot, and the soldiers left, she turned into what you see. She was cured of her disease, and was able to survive the bullet wound long enough for her to escape and get medical attention." He smiled. "So what do you say? Come join me, and you can be with her forever. All you have to do is give me the Master Emerald."

I looked at Shadow, afraid he would try to take the deal. After one look, I could tell that wasn't going to happen. "Never!" He yelled. "I will stop you and rescue Maria from your evil clutches!" Without any warning, he launched himself into the robots.

"Let's go!" I said to Tikal and Bokkun. They nodded, and ran off to attack the sides. I dove into the middle, following Shadow.

Man, there were a lot of robots. I could take them all out with a couple of punches, but there was always another to take its place. Every once and a while, I would jump up to see how the others were doing. Tikal was holding her own on the right side, forcing the robots to come to a standstill. Bokkun was doing really well also, sending bomb after bomb at the robots on the left side. Chaos was beating away any of the flying robots that got too close to the Emerald.

Shadow was ballistic. He was taking line after line of robot out. He didn't really seem to be trying to stop them; it seemed like he was trying to get to Eggman and Maria. Eggman had connected his hovercraft to her flying robot. She was surveying the scene in shock, her eyes never leaving Shadow.

After a while, the robots started to close in. I started to back up towards the altar. Soon Tikal and Bokkun joined me. Shadow, even though he didn't like it, retreated as well. We were starting to be pushed up the stairs of the altar.

"What are we going to do?" Bokkun asked.

Tikal looked at Eggman's hovercraft. "I got it." She ran up the steps of the altar. When she reached the top, she jumped off and started to glide towards him.

"Tikal, what are you doing?" I yelled at her.

She reached Eggman's hovercraft and grabbed onto it, flipping around and into it. She was probably trying to destroy anything that could have an effect on the robots.

Unforunately, it didn't work. The second her foot touched the inside of the machine, a claw grabbed her around her waist. She struggled, but wasn't getting anywhere. Eggman laughed. "Another bargaining tool. Give me the Master Emerald, and I will release Tikal."

I growled. Great; what now? We were all at the top of the altar, and the robots were getting very close. There had to be a solution to this. What was it?

Tikal, whose hands were free, pulled off one of her brass knuckles. "Don't worry about me. I'll _break _out. I could _break_ out right now." I looked at her. Chaos's eyes widened, and he shook his head. She nodded, and hurled her free brass knuckle at the Master Emerald. It bounced off, causing it to crack. Chaos flung his fist into the spot where the crack had formed, and the Master Emerald shattered, causing the pieces to shoot away at extremely high speeds. There was even a piece that flew through the line of robots, going through at least twenty of them.

Eggman growled. "Very clever. You may have delayed me, but I will be the one to gather them all first. And since I have Tikal, I am capable of putting it back together. So long, Knucklehead." He flew away with Tikal, dragging Maria behind him. The robots that were still functioning followed.

I breathed deeply, trying to get a grip on what just happened. We had found the solution, but it wasn't the best one. Now Tikal was captured, and we had no clue where the pieces of the Master Emerald were.

Without any warning, Chaos leapt off the Altar, ran to the nearest cliff, and started punching it repeatedly. The wall of stone was actually starting to break. "Chaos!" I ran over to where he was and grabbed him, throwing him to the ground. "What do you think you're doing?"

He stayed on his knees. I realized he was crying. Tears were falling from his eyes and down his liquid like face. A mixture of feelings was projected into my brain. Tikal was pretty much Chaos's only friend, and now she was gone. He felt like it was his fault

"Look, it stinks that Tikal was taken, but breaking down a cliff isn't going to bring her back. She didn't sacrifice herself for you to lose it. We have to go find the pieces of the Master Emerald." I looked at the Altar, where Bokkun and Shadow were. "Right, guys?"

"Right," Bokkun said.

Shadow didn't answer right away. He was looking at the spot where Eggman and Maria had disappeared. "No. We are going to save them before we do anything."

I was about to tell him that was ridiculous, but I stopped myself. Shadow wasn't a very social person, and Maria was probably the only friend he had ever, well, acknowledged as a friend. He had thought she was dead, and now he finds out she was still alive.

"Alright," I said. "We'll go save them, but first let's go by Tail's workshop. If Eggman has his security as strong as his robot army, we'll need some technology on our side. We should also wait just long enough until Eggman has found a couple of pieces of the master Emerald. That way, you and Chaos can go save Tikal and Maria, and Bokkun and I can go find the Master Emerald pieces."

Shadow was silent for a moment. "Fine. But the second he hasa piece of the Master Emerald, we are going in."

"Fine," I said. Then a problem with our plan occurred to me. "We don't know where his base is."

"I do," Bokkun said. "I can lead you guys to it."

I nodded. We had to save Maria and Tikal, even though we weren't exactly sure if that was Maria, find the pieces of the Master Emerald, and stop Eggman. Piece of cake. But a question still nagged at me. What did he want with the Master Emerald?


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: I based Maria off of the main design I see all over the internet. I did not create it, and I have no clue who did, but props to them.**

_Tikal p.o.v_

"You what?" Eggman asked me.

"I want to join your army," I said. I was currently in his base, wherever that was. I was absolutely terrified, and knew that no one was coming to rescue me. Knuckles and the others were going to fix the Master Emerald. I would have to escape by myself. So, I resulted to improvising.

"May I ask why?" Eggman said, very suspicious.

"I don't know what I was thinking, breaking the Master Emerald. If aiding you in finding the pieces is what it takes to put it back together, than I'm willing to do it."

"And how do I know this isn't a trick?"

"Well, no one's coming to save me. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Knuckles had been so furious that he abandoned Chaos for helping me break it."

He looked me over. "Fine. Maria will take you to the training center." He walked down the hall, leaving me with the mysterious hedgehog. Her face was cream, but her arms, legs, and waist length hair were yellow. She wore a futuristic looking tailed dress, made of very shiny material. Maybe it was made entirely out of metal.

"Who are you?" Maria asked.

"I'm Tikal. I was born over four thousand years ago and locked myself and Chaos into the Master Emerald."

"Who's Chaos?" Maria asked as we started down the hall. "Was he the water monster that helped you guys?"

"Yes. He was the original guardian of the Master Emerald."

"What is so important about that emerald?"

I stared at her. "You don't know a lot about the subject, do you?"

She shook her head. "I don't know too much about anything, to be honest. When I was a girl, I stayed in a giant space station called the Space Colony ARK. I had never been to earth. After I became a hedgehog, I had been sealed away in a capsule by one of my grandfather's robots to keep me alive."

"You seem to know Shadow."

"Yes. He was my only friend up in space."

I nodded. "Well, if you need information about the Master Emerald, I can help you. What do you want to know?"

Maria thought for a moment. "Start back to when you were born, four thousand years ago."

_Knuckles p.o.v_

"Well that's quite a story," Tails said after I filled him in on what was going on. We were in his lab in the Mystic Ruins. Bokkun was currently chowing down on some cake, Chaos was thoroughly examining everything in the workshop, and Shadow was pacing restlessly.

"So, do you have anything that can help us?" I asked.

"Of course," Tails said, going threw his inventions. First, he pulled out six of his high-tech Bluetooth things. "These are so you all can communicate. The security should be good enough so Eggman can't trace them." Then he pulled out a small gun and a remote control. "This is a device that can control any of his robots. You just shoot the special bullets into the robot, then control them with the remote."

"Got it. Anything else?"

"Nope. I wish I could be more of a help, but this is all I got."

I grabbed one of his headsets and put it on. The thing made my ear uncomfortable, and the mouthpiece was really annoying. "How do I use this thing?"

"Simple. You press the button on the top, and it'll turn on and off."

I handed one to Bokkun and Chaos. Bokkun put his own on, but Chaos stared at it, intrigued by the technology. I then handed one to Shadow, who forcefully took it and put it on his head. I let it slide. "Bokkun, you ready to lead us to Eggman's fortress?"

He smiled. "You bet."

_Tikal p.o.v_

"So we're breaking out?" Maria asked.

"Yes." I loaded the gun again and fired at the target dummy. My aim was terrible. "I don't know how, but I do plan on getting out of here, and I'm going to start by learning to use this stupid weapon."

Maria pulled out a gun and fired two bullets. One went through his head, and the other through his heart. "It just takes practice. I've sworn I would never do that to a real person, but I learned how to keep Ivo happy."

"Who?"

"Eggman." She put her gun away. "I knew he was ambitious, but this is just not right. I may not seem it, but I can be fierce when needed. I'm ready to help stop him."

I nodded. I was about to fire again, when I paused. Maria was confused. "What?"

It was faint, but I could feel them. "There are pieces of the Master Emerald here."

_Knuckles p.o.v_

"Bokkun, do you even know where you're going?" I asked him.

"Of course. Why do you ask?"

"Because we've been wondering around this forest for five days."

"Okay, I may not know exactly, but I do know it's around here somewhere." We came out of the trees. "Found it!" We were in front of a giant cliff. Bokkun pointed at a small rock at the base of it. "That is the lock to get in."

I nodded, then looked at the others. "Okay, so after five days, who has a plan?"

"What?" Bokkun exclaimed. "You don't have a plan?"

"No, but I'm open for suggestions."

Shadow was the first to speak. "We can always break in, wreak havoc, get the girls and the Master Emerald pieces, and leave."

"True." I looked at the cliff. There was definitely pieces of the Master Emerald in there. "How about we forcefully break in, hide from the security until things quite down, then split up. Shadow, you and Chaos go and find Tikal and Maria while Bokkun and I find the pieces of the Master Emerald."

"Fine," he said, "now who's breaking down the door?"

Chaos marched straight up to the cliff face. He punched it rather hard, and his hand went straight through the wall. He then grabbed the hole and widened it. Standing aside, he indicated for us to go first. It took us a minute to register what he wanted. We were pretty stunned at the hole.

"Well, that's one way to do it," I said, walking through the very spacious hole. An alarm was going off. "Now everyone quickly hide." Shadow, him being black, just stuck himself in a dark corner, and he was gone. Chaos disappeared into a line of water along the wall. Bokkun and I clung to the bars on the ceiling.

Security guards were running around like crazy, trying to find us. These were the cheaper robots that would never find us. After a good twenty minutes of searching, the alarm stopped, and more robots came to fix the door. We waited a few more minutes after they left, then left our hiding places.

"Okay, what now?" Bokkun asked.

"We split up."

We all ran down the hallway together for a while, but when it split, Bokkun and I went left while Shadow and Chaos when right. This was it. Bokkun and I moved swiftly through the halls. We were getting closer to the pieces of the Master Emerald. I could feel it.

Just as we were about to reach them, something very strange happened. They started moving. I motioned for Bokkun to speed up, and we raced towards the pieces. It was a little risky moving so fast through the halls. I was afraid we were going to run into someone.

We did.

It was Shadow and Chaos, luckily. We all jumped when we almost collided. "Did you find the girls yet?" I asked them.

"No," Shadow said, "what about the pieces of the Master Emerald?"

"They're moving." I concentrated. "Wait, they're coming this way."

We all turned down the hall that I sensed the pieces. Two girls were swiftly walking down that hall. "Chaos! Knuckles! You're all here!"

Tikal raced forward. "I thought you guys were going to go look for the other pieces of the Master Emerald. Why would you come save me?"

We all looked at Shadow, giving Tikal her answer. He was staring at Maria, and she was staring back. They both took a few steps forward, then rushed into each other's arms. "Shadow," Maria said. "I missed you so much."

"Me too," he said. They were sideways, so I could see his face, and the tear that was rolling down it. "You aren't allowed to die again. Do you understand?"

"I was infused with your blood; I'm not sure if I can." She smiled at all of us. "You guys are so sweet, coming to save us. Tikal told me your names, but who is who?"

"I'm Knuckles," I said, not meeting her eyes. I wasn't very good with girls. "Bokkun's the small one, and the blue one is Chaos." I turned my attention to Tikal. "Do you guys know where the pieces of the Master Emerald are?"

She held up three green shards. "Got it covered. I also found these," She pulled out two smaller emeralds, one yellow and one blue.

"What does Eggman have chaos emeralds for?" I asked, picking them up.

"I would love to tell you."

We all whirled around to see Eggman standing there, smiling evilly. "So, you managed to get back pieces of your lousy Emerald. That's fine, since I got what I was truly after with them. I could still use the Master Emerald, but it won't be too big of a setback if I don't have it."

"What are you planning, Eggman?" I said.

"You mean what was my plan. The part of the plan you're most interested in is complete. I shall introduce you all to my newest assistants." He stepped aside, and Tikal yelped with shock.

Standing there was what looked like an anti-Tikal. She was blue, and wore what I remembered to be the armor of the Nocturnus clan. Her toothy smile was harsh, matching her harsh green eyes. She held her helmet at her side. Even with these differences, the resemblance between her and Tikal was striking.

"Let me introduce Latik, my new controller for the Master Emerald."

She smiled. "So I'm replacing her? What a bore. Give me something interesting to do."

"Hush," Eggman said. "I also have a new guardian." A pool of black water formed at his side. "Meet Chaos B."

The water rose up into a mirror image of Chaos, but was pure black, his eyes a piercing orange. He scowled at Chaos, and he scowled back. The two looked ready to have at it.

"So, to answer your question, Knuckles," Eggman said, "I plan to rid myself of you, Tikal, and Chaos and put these two in your place, giving me full control over the Master Emerald, which gives me control over the chaos emeralds."

"How did you do this?" I asked.

"Simple. I first took Tikal's memories that were imprinted on the pieces of the Master Emerald, then created Latik. Chaos B. is simply liquefied negative chaos energy; a perfect replica of Chaos."

"Well you aren't getting them today," Maria said, pulling out a rather bulky gun. "I trusted you, my own cousin, and you betrayed me. I will do whatever is in my power to stop you."

"You think you can stop us with that puny weapon?" Latik said. She held up her hand, which held two throwing spikes.

"No!" I yelled, pushing Maria out of the way. Latik had expected something like this, though. One sank into my right arm while the other sunk into Maria's shoulder.

"Do you really expect to win?"

"Yep," Maria said, pointing her gun shakily at them. "We didn't just find two chaos emeralds. We found three."

His eyes widened, and she pulled the trigger. A huge flash of light washed over them, and they seemed to be frozen in place. "Run!" Maria said.

We all took off down the hall, Maria and Tikal leading. "How long will they be frozen?" I asked.

"Three minutes," Maria said. "That'll be just enough time for our escape."

They lead us into a large room full of aircrafts. They lead us to a large blue and orange one. "This is my own creation," Maria said, "so Eggman should have a harder time tracing it." She hopped into the pilot's seat, and we all climbed in. Her hands flew over the controls, and though she was grimacing from the pain, we were soon we were off the ground. The ceiling opened up, and we all flew out of the cliff, away from Eggman's fortress and his horrifying new minions.


	4. Chapter 4

_Knuckles p.o.v_

"Maria, you can't fly the plane any longer," Shadow said. "You need to do something about your shoulder."

I was in the back, looking around for any material to wrap the wounds in. I found the first aid kit, and it did have a large amount of gauze. I clenched my teeth, and pulled the throwing spike out of my arm. The wound started bleeding profusely. I quickly wrapped the wound.

"Maria, give the controls to Chaos," I said. "Tails taught him a good deal about technology." She looked at the blue creature, and he nodded. She got up, and he took her seat, picking up right where she left off.

I pulled the spike out of Maria's shoulder, and she flinched. I threw it aside, then started wrapping her wound. She looked at the spike that I had thrown, then at my wound, then back at the spike. "Um, Knuckles?"

"Yes?"

"Please tell me our blood is supposed to be green."

I looked at the spike that she was staring at. The tip was covered in green blood. I looked at my bandage, and it was tinted green as well. "Uh-oh."

"What?" Tikal said.

"The spikes had been poisoned."

Shadow and Tikals eyes widened. "What do we do?" Tikal asked.

"Well, medical attention would be nice." I said, looking around for a sharp object. I found a knife, then started cutting the gauze off of Maria. "We can't let the poison sit on the wound." Once it came off, I got two clean pieces of gauze. "Here, put this in your mouth to bite down on." I handed one of the pieces to her, and she bit down on it. I then started wiping any traces of green off of her wound. She shut her eyes tight and bit down hard on the gauze.

"Knuckles, you need to get the poison off of your arm, too," Bokkun said.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Maria said. "Get the gauze off of your arm now."

"No, I'm fine," I said, getting another clean piece of gauze. Truthfully, my vision was starting to become spotty, but I didn't care. Shadow had, well, pretty much no close friends. He was always cold and unwelcoming. Now he had his best friend back, and I wasn't just about to let her die.

After a few minutes, all traces of green were gone from her wound. "There. How is your vision?"

"Fine. Why?"

"No reason." I rewrapped it, then stood up, and as I did, my vision blurred, and I fell back down.

"Knuckles!" Tikal and Maria said, rushing over. I could just barely see Shadow giving Tikal the knife before I blacked out.

_Tikal p.o.v_

"Come on!" I said, looking desperately down at Station Square. "There has to be a hospital somewhere."

Chaos was looking around desperately, too. Shadow and Maria were tending to Knuckles, whose face was extremely pail. He was covered in sweat, and his breathing was extremely shallow. Maria was extremely angry. "He just met me! Why would he risk his own life for me? It just isn't fair!"

They had the bandage off, and Maria was getting the green blood off while shadow was applying disinfectant. I was really worried. If he died, then a third of Eggman's plan was complete. I shuddered at the memory. Latik. She was created with one purpose: destroy and replace me.

I finally saw what I was looking for. "Chaos, there!" He saw where I was pointing, and quickly turned the plane in that direction. He brought the plane down onto a helicopter landing pad. Maria and Shadow picked Knuckles up, and we all rushed him out. We had found the hospital.

A tall man came running up to us. "Hey, you can't just-"

"This is an emergency!" Maria said. "He's been hit by a poisonous spike and needs help now!"

He took one look at Knuckles. "Follow me." He led us down a flight of stairs and into the emergency room. The man inspected the wound. "You did a good job cleaning it, but the poison has already entered his system. I'm not too sure there is anything we can do."

"Oh, move it," I said. "Shadow, Maria, put him on the ground." They did this. I pulled out the three pieces of the Master Emerald in a triangle around him: one at his feet, and the other two at his shoulders. "Maria, get the chaos emerald out of your gun." She pulled out her weapon, opened it up, and pulled out a green emerald. I put that at his head, and the other two on either side of his legs.

I folded my hands together. I wasn't sure if would work, since we only had three shards and the chaos emeralds, but it was our only plan. "The servers are the seven chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos." The chaos emeralds and shards started to glow. "Please, save Knuckles!"

The glow got stronger. Color returned to Knuckles face, and his breathing leveled out. The wound even started to close. The glow died down, and he opened his eyes. "Where are we?"

"In the hospital," Bokkun said. "But they couldn't do anything, so Tikal healed you."

He sat up and looked at his wound, which had now completely closed. "Nice. Do you think it would work on Maria's wound too?"

I folded my hands together, and closed my eyes. I felt energy radiate from the emeralds and shards, and when I opened my eyes, they were on the ground around Maria's feet. She cut the gauze off of her wound, and it was gone as well.

_Amazing. _Chaos said through telepathy. _When did you learn to do that?_

_ I didn't. _I picked the pieces and emeralds up. "Well, now what?"

"Simple," Shadow said, "we find the other pieces of the Master Emerald, get the other Chaos Emeralds, stop Eggman, Latik, and Chaos B., and save the world."

"I'm for it," Knuckles said, standing up. "You guys in?"

"We are," I said, Chaos nodding in agreement.

"I'm in, too," Bokkun said.

"So am I," Maria said.

"Alright, then let's get going."

_Knuckles p.o.v_

"So there are pieces of the Master Emerald here?" Shadow asked.

"I'm certain of it," I said, looking at the building. It was huge, but the pieces seemed to be on the first floor. The only problem was there was some event going on, and you had to have an invitation. "Does anyone have a plan to get in?"

"I do," Maria said. "Just follow my lead." She walked up to the man with the guest list. "Sir, please help me! I lost my cat, and he might have run into the building!"

He looked at her. "I'm pretty sure that I would have noticed that."

Her eyes got misty. "Well will you please help me look? He's just a kitten."

He sighed. "Fine. Where did you last see him?"

"Over here." She led him to the side of the building, and we all rushed in. We made sure we were out of view from the door, and waited for Maria.

"I don't think he's around here," the man said.

She sniffed. "Well, thanks for help-" She screamed. "There he is!"

"What, where?" The man said, whirling around wildly. Maria swiftly ran into the building, and hid behind a bush. We could hear the man mumbling about rotten kids, and he continued greeting guests.

"Okay, we're in," Maria said. "What now?"

"We head this way," I said, walking through the lobby. I was a little uncomfortable, since this was a black tie event, but I ignored it. I had to find the pieces of the Master Emerald.

We walked into a large ballroom, and my senses were going crazy. The pieces were in here. "They're in here somewhere. Do any of you see them?"

"I do," Bokkun said, pointing at a long table with three people sitting at it. I groaned. I saw them too. On the table was a trophy, and they were on it.

"What now?" Tikal asked.

"Isn't it obvious?"

We all jumped and turned in the direction of the voice. None other than Rouge the bat was standing there, wearing an elegant black dress. "I see the Master Emerald broke again."

"And you aren't getting it," I said, scowling at her.

"Relax, I don't want it anyway. You'll just always be there to give me grief. I'm more concerned about two things: why it's broken and why Bokkun is with you." She winked at him, and he glared. I guess he doesn't like her.

"We can explain later," I said. "What kind of competition is this?"

She smiled. "It's a dance competition." She smiled at Shadow, Chaos, and me. "Which one of you will be my dance partner?"

Chaos looked at us both, and raised his hand. Rouge looked skeptical. "You know how to dance?" He nodded. "Do you know how to improvise while dancing?" He nodded again. "Good. I'll fill you in more, but we need to register." She grabbed his arm, and they ran off.

"Do you think we should all enter?" Maria asked.

"Not me," I said. "I have no dancing ability."

"Me neither," Shadow said.

"Good evening," A voice magnified by a microphone said. "Our dance competition is now under way. Our first dancers are Rouge the bat and her partner, Chaos." There was a collective gasp as those who remembered the blue creature from before saw him. He paid them no mind.

Music started up, and they started to dance. It was I song I surprisingly knew. I believe it was called Sway, by some guy I didn't know the name of. Bubble? Soufflé? Not sure. It was the perfect music for the tango, which is what I believe they were doing. They were incredible. You would have never guessed that they had never practiced.

The music stopped for a moment, and they froze. It then started up again, more lively, and they started dancing faster, spinning and moving in such eccentric ways that it was impossible to tell exactly what they were doing. For their finale, Chaos threw Rouge up, where she spun around, and he caught her, flipped her back to her feet, and they were done.

"Amazing," Maria said, clapping with the rest of the excited crowd. "Were did they learn to do that?"

"Who knows?" I said. "I just hope they won."

They joined us. "So, we were perfect, right?" Rouge said.

"Of course," Maria said excitedly. "I haven't properly introduced myself. I'm Maria."

Rouge eyes widened. "Maria Robotnik?"

"Yes. How'd you know?"

"Shadow spoke most highly of you," She said, winking at the hedgehog. "I'm glad to see you aren't dead."

The rest of the dancers weren't nearly as good as Chaos and Rouge. There was no way they were going to lose. Soon the competition was over, and the announcer was back. "That is all of our dancers, and the judges will now make their decision."

"Wait just one minute."

Everyone but Rouge's eyes widened. "That isn't-"

"It is."

We all turned to see the creepy blue echidna and her black partner. "We're sorry we're late," Latik said, "but it'll be worth it if you let us dance."

* * *

**Song: Sway, by Michael Buble**


	5. Chapter 5

_Knuckles p.o.v_

"So, what will it be?" Latik said, smiling at the announcer, more elegantly then evilly.

He was a little dumbfounded. "Uh, I'm afraid the competition is over. You will be unable to enter."

"Aw, that's no fun," she said, crossing her arms. "Then again, there is another kind of dancing that I enjoy." She smiled in our direction.

"Everyone get down!" I yelled, tackling half the group. Luckily Chaos got what Latik had been saying, because he tackled the other half. Multiple throwing spikes sailed over our heads.

"Shadow, Rouge, Bokkun, get everyone out of here!" I said, rolling away. Soon they were up and getting as many people out as possible.

"That does it!" Maria yelled. She whipped out a large briefcase, which magically had been hidden in her dress, and it unfolded into a giant machine gun. "Take this you creeps!" She started firing away. Chaos B. was unconcerned, since the bullets had no effect on him, but Latik was doing some very eccentric dodging and running.

Chaos scowled at his counterpart, and they launched into hand to hand combat. Tikal had her brass knuckles on and two guns in hand. "Maria, stop. Leave Latik to me. You guys restrain Chaos B." Maria stopped firing, and nodded. Her gun folded back up, and she stashed it again. We then launched ourselves at the black monster.

The battle raged on. All of the people were gone, and Shadow, Rouge, and Bokkun had rejoined us. After Chaos knocked Chaos B. down, we all pounced on him, pinning him to the floor. He struggled, but was unable to get back up. Apparently he hadn't mastered the skill of melting then rematerializing yet.

Latik and Tikal were still battling. Most of it was hand to hand, but in the brief moments of them being apart, Latik would throw her spikes, and Maria would bat them away with her guns. Tikal would also fire occasionally, but Latik would dodge. We all watched, mesmerized by the battle. Even Chaos B. had stopped struggling to watch.

Tikal blocked a punch from Latik, then grabbed her leg and yanked it up, causing Latik to fall down. She shot the gun in her left hand, and cuffs trapped Latik's arms and legs to the ground. She struggled, but it was obvious she wasn't going to get up. Tikal pointed the gun in her right hand right at Latik's head.

"They told me you couldn't fight," Latik said angrily.

"I don't like conflict; that doesn't mean I am unable. Plus, when you spend five days in Eggman's base with a lot of down time, you pick up a few skills."

"Now, Tikal," Shadow said. "Get rid of her."

Even though she stared Tikal down, there was fear in Latik's eyes. She hadn't expected to lose, and now that she had, she realized her life was about to end. Tikal had a fire in her eyes, one that I had never seen. She looked Latik right in her eyes, and her finger started to pull the trigger.

Then, she stopped. "What are you waiting for?" Bokkun said. "Kill her! She was created to kill you."

"And if you don't, G.U.N will," Rouge said. "They're coming. I called them while we were evacuating people."

Tikal was still looking at Latik. Her eyes had softened. She lowered her gun. "Go."

"What?" Latik said.

Tikal pulled off the cuffs holding her down. "I said go! Run before G.U.N gets here!" She looked at all of us. "Release Chaos B."

We all got off the creature, and he stood up. Latik looked one last time at Tikal. One poison spike to the heart, and her job was complete.

"You won't win next time," Latik said. "Let's go!" She ran out the door, Chaos B. right behind her.

"We need to go too," I said, grabbing the untouched trophy, which still had the pieces of the Master Emerald in it. "I don't think G.U.N will be very friendly to us after all of this." We all ran out, following our replacements, the ones Tikal had let go.

_Latik p.o.v_

"They escaped?" Eggman said, outraged at us. Thankfully he believed my lie, otherwise we'd probably be killed in his fury.

"Yes, sir. We were about to nab the trophy and defeat them, but Maria pulled out her machine gun, and distracted us. Then the red echidna grabbed it, and they escaped in the plane that they had stolen."

"Well make sure that this never happens again." He walked away, leaving me alone with Chaos B.

My partner looked at me. _You didn't kill her. It would have only taken a quick stab in the heart. You aren't going soft, are you?_

_ Of course not. She beat me in the fight, and I need to prove I am better than her before I can replace her. _Luckily he couldn't completely read my mind. To be honest, I was very confused. I was created for one purpose, and that was to kill Tikal. I guess I also need to kill Knuckles, but that's unimportant. I had been in combat with her, and she beat me. I should have been killed. My life should have ended. I would have pulled the trigger if I was in her place.

And yet, she let us go. She hadn't just left us there; she had freed us so we wouldn't be caught. I didn't know what to think now. Could I really look her in the eye, the girl who had set me free, who had given me another chance at life, and kill her?

_I'm going to go to gun training. I'll catch up with you later._ Chaos B. nodded, and we went our separate ways. I had lied. I was really heading to the cabin that Eggman had put at the top of the cliff that served as my house. Once I had exited the cliff at the bottom, I climbed up the face. I wasn't very fast, but I needed to be able to do it to copy Knuckle's skills. Once I reached the top, I sat in my chair on the deck. The view was beautiful.

I pulled out the locket that I had taken from Tikal. It had been very well camouflaged, the golden chain being very thin, and the locket being the exact same shape and color of the gem on her collar necklace. I opened it up, and it showed a very detailed painted picture of a young Tikal with what looked like her grandmother.

I closed it, tears forming in my eyes. All I had was Chaos B. I didn't have any friends, any family. Tikal was loved. She had plenty of friends. She had at least _had _a family. I had just come into existence a couple of days ago. I was alone.

But, then again, was Tikal trying to be my friend?


	6. Chapter 6

_Shadow p.o.v_

I looked around. Man, this place was boring. After we had escaped the dance, we had flown to Tail's workshop. Now I was wondering around, looking for something to do. Everyone was at the workshop, explaining what had happened. Chaos and Maria were also helping Tails create some new gadgets.

I climbed up a large hill, and at the top, it dropped off as a large cliff. The view was pretty good. You could probably see most of Mystic Ruins. To my surprise, Tikal was sitting up here. Her feet were dangling off the edge of the cliff.

I walked up and sat down next to her. "Nice view."

"Yeah, I guess."

She was sad. I could tell that much. Leave it to me to be the one stuck with the job of cheering her up. I looked outward. "I have to know, why didn't you kill Latik?"

She sighed. "Because, when I looked at her, I saw myself. It was just like the day my father attacked me."

I looked at her. This was new. "He attacked you?"

She nodded. "My father, Pachacamac, wanted you to use the chaos emeralds to defeat our enemies. I was against this, since there were many chao living there. I tried to reason with him, but he wouldn't listen. I still stood in his way. I was there; ready to give my life to stop him. And in his greed, he attacked me, harming the chao, causing Chaos to fight back." Her eyes were misty. "When I looked at Latik, she was just like me, and if I harmed her, I would be just like my father."

"I'm impressed."

She looked at me. "What for?"

"You looked right at the one who is meant to kill you, to replace you, and you let her go. I doubt there is anyone in our group who could do that. You, in a way, are the strongest out of all of us."

She smiled. "Thanks."

I stood up and held my hand out to her. "Now let's head back to the lab. Chaos, Maria, and Tails should have had enough time to create some new toys."

_Knuckles p.o.v_

"So this is what we've come up with," Tails said. He, Maria, and Chaos were standing in front of a bunch of different things. Tikal and Shadow had returned, and we were all ready for this presentation.

"First off, we've created an antidote to counter Latik's poisonous spikes." He pulled out a bottle full of blue liquid. "Using one of her spikes, we were able to come up with this. If you are hit by one of them, you apply this to the wound, and you'll be fine."

"Up next we have this," Maria said, pulling out a small metal box. "This is my own personal design, using my collapsing method." She through it onto the ground, and it folded out into a large silver motorcycle. She then pressed a button on it, and it folded back up.

"I still want you to teach me that," Tails said. "Even I don't know how to fold things down like that."

"Later. Now, putting our minds together, we were able to create an even more impressive version of your original headsets," Tails said. They looked pretty similar to the original ones, but when I put it on, it was much more comfortable. Maria had one that looked like a large pair of silver headphones. "Since Maria is the one who knows the most about them, she has the most advanced headset."

"We even came up with a way to counter Chaos B. using a sample from chaos." They pulled out a small remote. "This device emits a wave of energy opposite to the negative energy Chaos B. Turn on this, and he will become temporarily immobilized."

"Won't that affect chaos as well?" I asked.

"Yes, but not as much," Maria said. "Chaos is a chao that was mutated by the Master Emerald, while Chaos B. is just plain old negative chaos energy. While this will slow down Chaos a bit, it won't immobilize him."

"And we did create an emerald locater," Tails said, "but I was wondering if you would need it."

"Maria might find it useful for now," Tikal said, "but if we give her the shards of the Master Emerald, she will eventually develop the chaos sense."

"The what?" Maria asked.

"Chaos sense is the ability that allows Chaos, Knuckles, Rouge, and me to locate the pieces of the Master Emerald. Rouge developed the ability on her own due to her love of jewels. Bokkun and Shadow should have developed it during the time we waited for Eggman to come try to steal the Master Emerald."

"Wait, we can sense the Master Emerald?" Shadow asked.

"Yes. I no longer have the pieces. Can you or Bokkun tell me who does?"

Shadow looked at us all. "Chaos has three of them."

"And Knuckles has the other three," Bokkun said.

"I settle my case."

"Now, for are final invention, we have another one of Maria's collapsible designs," Tails said, pulling out a briefcase. He opened it, and inside it were seven small slots circling a larger one. "This is a holder for the chaos emeralds and the Master Emerald." Maria placed the chaos emeralds we currently had, except the one she used in her gun, inside it, closed it, then stashed it in her dress.

I had to know. "How do you keep all of those briefcases hidden?"

"My dress was made by Eggman. Using a bunch of chaos drives, he was able to create a sort of half chaos control. The rim of my dress creates a ring that when something too large to fit inside it enters, it is transported to, well, nowhere until I so choose to take it out."

"I don't get it."

"Neither do I," She said. "All I know is that I can keep every weapon Eggman owns and then some and he would never know."

"Well, that's all we have," Tails said. "Do you guys know where the next pieces of the Master Emerald are?"

"I do," Tikal said, "and that motorcycle might be needed."


	7. Chapter 7

_Shadow p.o.v_

"Are you kidding me?" Knuckles said. "Another three are set in a trophy?" We were standing in front of registration for a race that was going on today. Any motorized vehicle was able to enter. Sitting on a large pedestal was a trophy with three green shards in them.

"I'm skeptical," Rouge said. "I know this race. It's sponsored by G.U.N. I would hope that they would know a piece of the Master Emerald when they saw one."

"Well, either way, we might as well get in there and win," Maria said. "I'll enter with my motorcycle. This'll be easy."

She walked up to registration. "I'm registering. My name is Maria Robotnik."

"As in Dr. Robotnik?" The man asked.

"Why'd you say it like that? What, just because my cousin is a total freak means that I'm just as bad?" She asked. "That's prejudice!"

"Um, I'm sorry," He said. "What kind of vehicle will you be using?"

"A motorcycle."

"You cut it close," he said, entering this into a computer. "The race starts in five minutes. Hurry to the starting line."

"Thanks. Bye!" She ran off to the starting line, near the back. We all went to the stands. On the way, Rouge grabbed a map of the course. She looked it over. "Maria's got her work cut out for her. This course was created using the best of G.U.N's technology."

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen," an announcer said, "it's time for the show! Racers, start your vehicles!"

Most of the racers were on their vehicles, and some of them were laughing at Maria, who was holding her cube. She smiled sweetly at them, and threw her cube on the ground, which became her motorcycle. They shut up pretty fast.

"Now, you know the rules: any weapon is allowed, and whoever reaches the finish line first wins."

"Weapons?" Tikal asked. "You people do this for fun?"

"Ready, set,"

"Go!"

_Maria p.o.v_

This race was intense. I counted forty racers at the start, but by the first turn, I only counted fourteen. I was currently in second place. It wasn't going to be super easy, but I was going to win.

I sped up, going around the huge turn on the wall. I was getting closer to the guy in first. He was also on a motorcycle. As I pulled up next to me, he smiled cruelly. "You're out of your league, little girl!" He had a gun on the side of his motorcycle.

I laughed, and pulled out my chaos gun. "In your dreams!" I shot it, and he froze, sending me far ahead of him. Strike that. This was going to be easy. I went around the next turn, and there was a large jump. If I made it to the top of the next platform, it would be faster than falling to the bottom one.

I sped up, launching myself upward off the ramp. I suddenly wasn't so sure about my plan. I wasn't going to reach the top ramp. I wasn't going under it either. My jump was just the right height that I was going to crash into the top platform!

I stood up on my bike, and set it to autopilot. I jumped, pushing down on the motorcycle, sending it under the platform, and sending me on the top one. I started running, hoping to reach the end of the platform before my bike.

"Look at that!" The announcer said. "Maria Robotnik might not have needed a bike to win this race. She's on fire!"

I looked to the side. The platform was moving past very fast. No, I was moving fast on it. I laughed. I guess Shadow's blood had some other effects as well. I picked up the pace, and when I reached the end, I jumped off. I fell for a moment, then my bike sped out from behind me, and I landed perfectly on it.

I didn't see any other racers the rest of the race. I crossed the finish line first, and the crowd went crazy. I don't know why. That wasn't a challenge at all. I still did have fun. I waved to the crowd, and the announcer gave the trophy.

I walked over to the others. "That was too easy."

Knuckles held the trophy, then scowled. "You're right. It was. I can't believe we were tricked this easily by G.U.N."

"What do you mean?" Shadow asked.

"If these were real pieces of the Master Emerald, then Latik and Chaos B. would be here. This was a trap set for them, and we fell for it."

Rouge nodded. "They probably do have pieces though, but they wouldn't be here. They would be in the V.A.S.E."

"What's that?" I asked.

"We created it specifically for keeping the chaos emeralds safe from eggman. It stands for Vault Assigned to Secure the Emeralds. I hate the name, but it does its job well."

"So what now?" Bokkun asked.

Rouge winked. "Luckily for you all, I know where it is, and how to get in."


	8. Chapter 8

_Knuckles p.o.v_

"That thing is huge!" I said. "Is the entire thing the V.A.S.E?" We were looking at a huge landform that looked like a vase buried in sand. It was covered in large trees. We were flying at it, and it just kept getting bigger.

"Yep," Rouge said. "We also use it as a tourist attraction. Very few know that it's hollow, even fewer know you can go inside it, and less than ten know that it's a vault."

"So were breaking in, taking the Master Emerald pieces, and leaving before Latik, Chaos B., or G.U.N knows were there?" Maria asked.

"That pretty much sums it up."

Chaos, who was currently flying the plane, put away an IPod he had gotten from tails. He didn't have ears, so I was skeptical that it would work. But, it apparently did, because I'm pretty sure he didn't hear a word we said the entire way here.

We landed a good distance away. Rouge led us up to the top. Once we were there, she took us to a tree. It didn't look different than any other in the forest. "What's special about this tree?"

She jumped up into it, and pulled on the third branch she came to. A keyboard that looked identical to the tree popped out. If you didn't watch it come out of the trunk, you probably would never know it was there.

Rouge started to type. After a good couple of minutes, the keyboard went back into the tree. "Okay, it'll open in just a minute." She hopped out of the tree, and led us to the edge of the top. It was really weird. Since it was shaped like a vase, there was a large drop-off where it bowed inward. The fall could easily kill anyone.

Once on the edge, the ground seemed to open up, revealing a large spiral staircase. "Get in, quickly." We all ran down the steps, and the second we were all in, the ground shut. This was ridiculous. We were inside a huge fake landform and were about to steal from a huge military agency.

"Okay, first we need to turn off the security camera's," Rouge said, pulling a panel out of the wall. Inside were multiple switches. She flipped one of them. "Now, we have exactly ten minutes before the camera's come back on, and then five more minutes until G.U.N gets here."

I closed my eyes, concentrating on the pieces of the Master Emerald. "Okay, there are three pieces and I think there might be some chaos emeralds. We'll split up. I'll go with Tikal and Chaos, Bokkun, you go with Rouge, and Shadow, you go with Maria. When you find a piece or an emerald, contact Maria using the headsets. Got it?" They all nodded, though Bokkun looked very unhappy with this arrangement.

We all ran down the stairs silently. Every time we reached a floor, one of the groups would leave. Maria and Shadow went first, Rouge and Bokkun went second, and Tikal, Chaos, and I got off on the third, which was the end of the spiral staircase.

This was turning out to be harder than expected. If we hadn't turned off the cameras, this would be absolutely impossible. We saw a security robot every minute, and hiding was rather difficult. The laser grid wasn't too hard to deal with, especially since Chaos was capable of turning into a puddle of water and go under all of them.

The biggest problem was we weren't the only ones in the vault.

My headset buzzed, and I turned it on. "Maria, what is it?"

"Rouge and Bokkun found one of the pieces of the Master Emerald, but they spotted something else."

"What?"

"Latik and Chaos B. There in here too, and they know we're here."

Great. That was just perfect. "Okay. Tell Rouge and Bokkun to hide. The second we find the other pieces, we all need to get out fast. Whatever you do, don't let them catch you."

"Got it." She was silent for a moment, then was back. "Um, slight problem; Rouge didn't listen. She said she is going to tail them and let us all know where they are."

That dumb bat. "Fine, but tell them to be careful."

We continued down the hall, dodging the security as we go. We finally reached the end, and there was a safe. Chaos put his hand on the door, and part of it slipped between the cracks. We waited a moment, and it opened, the rest of his hand reuniting with him. Inside was a piece of the Master Emerald, and a chaos emerald, this one purple.

I picked them both up. "Maria, we found a piece of the Master Emerald and a chaos emerald."

"Great timing. We found the last piece. Let's get out of here."

"I don't think so."

I felt horror strike me as I heard Latik's voice over the headset. "We know you have all the pieces. Give them to us."

There was a pause. "Fine," Maria said. "Meet us all at the bottom of the spiral staircase."

I turned the headset off. I hope I knew what she was doing. "Maria plans to lead Latik and Chaos B. to this floor. We have to get to a different one now."

They nodded, and we charged down the hallway. If we saw a security robot, we didn't bother hiding. It went down before it knew what hit it. We did take time on the lasers. We didn't need anyone knowing we were on this floor.

We made it back to the spiral staircase, and ran up it. When we reached the next floor, we ran into Rouge and Bokkun. Tikal almost screamed, but luckily Chaos covered her mouth.

"Run, they're right behind us!" Bokkun said.

Latik and Chaos B. turned the corner. "Liars. We'll just have to pry the pieces from your cold dead hands."

We didn't wait to hear more. We bolted up the stairs, them not too far behind. When we reached the next floor, Shadow and Maria came out of the hallway. We grabbed them and kept running. When we reached the top, Rouge pulled out the panel again, and flipped another switch. The ground opened up again to let us out.

We all got out, and turned around. We weren't able to close the door before Latik and Chaos B. could get out. She looked at us all. "Now, I do plan on taking the pieces of the Master Emerald with me." She looked at Tikal. "But there are more important matters."

Tikal looked at us. "Please move back." We all backed away, including Chaos B., giving the two a very sizable amount of room to fight.

Tikal put on her brass knuckles. "Latik, this isn't necessary."

"It is too," She growled, cracking her knuckles. "I'm going to defeat you if it's the last thing I do!" She launched herself at Tikal, who blocked the attack, and retreated a bit. Latik wasn't happy. "Fight me properly!" She launched attack after attack, but Tikal refused to fight back. She was only on the defensive.

"Why isn't she fighting back?" Rouge asked.

"She doesn't want to be like her father," Shadow said.

We all looked at him, but he kept his eyes on the battle. They were getting awfully close to the edge. Tikal bocked another attack, and when Latik came in again, she slapped her arm away. Latik's foot hit the edge, and the rock broke.

"Latik!" Tikal yelled. She leapt for the edge, and grabbed the falling echidna. We all ran forward. I grabbed her, Shadow grabbed me, Maria grabbed him, Rouge grabbed her, and Chaos was the one at the top, Bokkun trying to pull him, but he wasn't doing much.

Chaos B. casually strolled up to us. He grabbed Bokkun and threw him aside. Then he wrapped his finger's around Chaos's throat. Our chain sank a little. I couldn't believe this. He was going to kill us all, even Latik, just to finish his job.

Maria let one hand go, holding onto only one of Shadow's legs. She reached into her dress and pulled out the emerald briefcase. "Chaos!" She threw it into the air. "Catch!"

As the briefcase soared into the air, it popped open. Chaos extended one of his arms out, grabbing it, and absorbing the two emeralds that were in there. He became surrounded in a bright light, and when it died down, he was taller, his arms now containing bones that surrounded the chaos emeralds.

He pulled, and we all flew back onto the top. Once everyone was firmly on the ground, the changed back to Chaos 0, and threw the emeralds to Shadow. Shadow grabbed them, and held his hands out. "Chaos control!" A large beam of light flew from the emeralds and washed over Chaos B. He was gone, and so were the two emeralds.

Tikal crawled over to Latik. "Are you okay?"

Tikal held her hand out to her, but Latik slapped it away. "No! I'm not okay! Why are you doing this? It just isn't fair!" She ran off into the woods. Hopefully the top was large enough that she wouldn't run off the other edge.

"Latik, wait!" Tikal said, running after her. I didn't even give it a second thought. I followed. I had to be sure that Latik wasn't just setting us up. I wasn't sure if the other's followed, but I didn't care.

Tikal found Latik, who was on all fours, sobbing uncontrollably. I hid behind some greenery, while Tikal was immediately at Latik's side. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"No! Stop it!" Latik cried harder. "He tried to kill me! I'm all alone!"

"What are you talking about?"

Latik threw something at Tikal. It wasn't a throwing spike. It was, I believe, a small locket. Tikal picked it up, her eyes wide. "Where did you find it?"

"I stole it from you. It isn't fair," She sat down, still crying. "You had a family, you have Chaos, you have all of your friends. You're loved by just about everyone. I was made to replace you, but I will never get the love you have. I only had Chaos B., but now I don't have him anymore." She put her face into her hands and continued to cry.

Tikal rubbed her back. "Then don't."

Latik looked between the cracks in her fingers. "What?"

"Don't replace me. You don't have to."

I saw Latik's hand slip into her armor. She had one of her poisoned throwing spikes in hand. "You're right. I don't."

"Tikal, stop her!" I said, picking up on what she was trying to do.

Tikal, seeing the spike, tackled her, pinning her to the ground. I ran forward and ripped the spike out of her hand, throwing it aside and helping pin her down.

"Stop it! Stop it!" Latik screamed hysterically. "I have nothing to live for! Let me die!"

"Get a grip!" I yelled at her. "When Tikal said you don't, she didn't mean kill yourself!"

Latik struggled for a minute, then gave up, gasping, tears still falling from her eyes. "What should I do?" She looked like a scared, tired, defeated little kid. "Help me."

"Come with us," Tikal said. "You aren't alone. You have me and Knuckles. We're all pretty much family. And you can be loved. All you need to do is love others. "

We waited for a moment, and Latik nodded. We let her go, and Tikal helped her to her feet. "Now, I want you to get rid of all of your throwing spikes." Without question, she pulled out at least thirty spikes and dropped them to the ground. We turned around, and saw the rest of the group watching from a distance. Latik refused to look at any of them.

We all silently walked back to the plane. As we were getting on, Maria screamed. We all jumped. "What, what is it?" Shadow asked.

"We have Latik, right? And she won't follow Eggman's plan anymore. Does that mean he's done?"

"Well-" I looked at the others, and they didn't know how to respond.

"Exactly. He said he wanted to take over the Master Emerald to control the chaos emeralds. What is he going to do with them?"

"Well usually he puts them into some huge weapon," Rouge said.

"And he has one!" She said. "Chaos B.!"


	9. Chapter 9

_Rouge p.o.v_

"So what now?" I asked. "Maria has a very good point. Now we have a dilemma. Do we go after the chaos emeralds or continue to fix the Master Emerald." We were all now in the plane, and flying to nowhere in particular.

"Go for the Master Emerald," Latik said. She hadn't said a word ever since she decided to join us. When we got in the plane, she sat down in the back and looked down. She really did need to lighten up. Sure, she did try to murder us all, but if she tried to commit suicide, I'm pretty sure she feels bad about it.

"They already have at least two emeralds," she said, "which means we're already behind. The Master Emerald is able to stop the chaos emeralds. And they won't have them all until they take the one last one we have now; the one in Maria's gun."

Knuckles nodded. "Right. Tikal, do you sense anything yet?"

Tikal closed her eyes. "Yes. In a few more miles, there seems to be three of them."

We continued to fly. The couple of miles was taking us right over a hill. Once we reached the top, I was almost blinded by the extreme wall of white we encountered. The Master Emerald pieces were scattered in a giant field of pure white lilies.

We landed the plane, and got out. Man, those flowers were bright. "So, where do we look first?" I asked.

"Hey, Knuckles! Rouge!"

We turned to see a little bunny girl running towards us, followed by her little chao friend. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We can ask you the same thing, Cream," I said.

"I came to pick some flowers. Cheese and I found this place, and we come here to play all the time." She looked at Chaos and Tikal. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Knuckles let us out of the Master Emerald to help protect it," Tikal said.

"Well will you all help me pick some flowers?" Cream asked.

I smiled. "I think you need a special flower picking partner, and I know just the person." I looked at Latik. If anyone could open up that girl, Cream could.

Cream grabbed Latik's hand. "Yay! Come on, I'll show you were the best are!" She pulled her along.

I chuckled. "I think I'll fallow. I want to see this train wreck happen." I ambled along after them. The others started the search for the pieces.

Cream was happily running around, picking flowers that she thought were the prettiest. Once she had a good handful, she handed them to Latik. "These can be for you. You haven't told me your name yet. What is it?"

Latik took the small bouquet. "I'm Latik."

"I'm Cream, and this is Cheese. Nice to meet you." Cream continued to pick flowers. Latik stood there uncomfortably. Cream noticed. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Latik lied, looking away.

"What's wrong?"

She sighed. "I don't belong here."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not a good person."

"You seem nice enough to me."

"Yeah, well, looks can be deceiving."

"Did you do something wrong?"

"Yes."

"Are you sorry about it?"

Latik looked at her. "Extremely."

"Do you plan to do it again?"

"No. Never."

"Then you're a good person." Cream smiled, and to my amazement, Latik smiled walked by her, pretending to pick up a flower, but then tapped Latik's arm. "Tag! You're it!" She laughed, and ran away in my direction.

Latik smiled, and took off after her. As they passed me, she tapped my arm. "Rouge's it!"

It took me a minute to register this, then I took off after them. This may be kind of sad, but I had never participated in a game of tag. Sad, but true. The best part about this was they were running right towards everyone else. This was going to be fun.

Cream and Latik ran right through the middle of the group, and as I ran past, I tapped Maria's arm. "Maria's it!"

Maria caught on fast, because she reached over and tagged Shadow. "Not anymore. Shadow's it!"

Shadow was a bit taken aback by this, long enough for everyone to run away. He then took off, and reached Chaos in seconds. "I got Chaos."

Chaos barely took three steps, then he extended his arm and got Knuckles. Knuckles was right next to Tikal, so soon she was it.

Soon we were all running around, very engaged in this game of tag. Cream was it a lot, since she was one of the slower of us, but she was really good at tricking people to tag them. This game was also helping us find the pieces of the Master Emerald. Knuckles had been running from Latik and had tripped over one of the pieces. He picked it up, then ran after us all, Latik having tagged him.

We did this pretty much the rest of the day. When we had finally found the last piece, and were all too tired to continue, the sun had started to set. We then all laid down in a circle with our heads together, Chaos turning on that IPod of his. Since when did he like modern music?

"Thanks for playing with us," Cream said.

"Hey, when saving the world, a game of tag is the perfect stress reliever," I said.

"Shouldn't you be heading home?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah, I guess so." She got up disappointedly, and gasped. "Chaos, why are there two of you?"

We all rolled to our feet. "Cream, run!" Knuckles yelled. "That's Chaos B.!"

_Shadow p.o.v_

We all formed a circle around the black creature. I eyed Latik. She seemed reluctant, but was ready to fight. I was afraid she might start helping him. I wasn't letting her out of my sight.

Chaos B. looked at us all. With three swift movements, he had Knuckles, Rouge, and Tikal down. Bokkun tried to throw some bombs at him, but was swatted out of the sky pretty fast. He had gotten faster. He was black, so I wasn't sure if he had a chaos emerald inside him. He didn't look any different.

He swung his arm at me, and I jumped out of the way. Following his swing, he hit Maria, sending her flying back. "Maria!" I ran to her side.

He started slowly moving for Latik. There was fear in her eyes. She wasn't going to be able to do it. Even after that monster had stabbed her in the back and tried to kill her, she still wasn't willing to attack him.

Cream and Cheese leapt in front of her. "Leave Latik alone!" Cheese sailed in front of Chaos B.'s eyes, and he swatted at him. This distracted him long enough for Cream to kick him hard in the face, sending him back.

"Cream, no!" Latik yelled. "You'll get hurt!"

This time Cream ran forward, and as Chaos B. tried to grab her, Cheese flew in, sticking himself to his face, allowing Cream to headbutt him right in the stomach. He righted himself instantly, and swung his arm, knocking both of them away.

That did it for Latik. "Maria, give me the pieces of the Master Emerald!" Maria pulled them out of her dress, and threw them at Latik. The second she grabbed them, she threw them at Cream. Chaos B. was moving in on the rabbit, but when the pieces reached her, they formed a shield around her out of green energy.

Latik ran forward, and the emerald pieces then formed in a line, creating a blade of energy. She looked ready to kill. "Don't you _dare _touch my friends you back stabbing," she cut his left arm, "lying," then his right, "evil," then his left leg, "hurtful," then his right leg, "monster!" She raked a huge line across his stomach, then kicked him hard, sending him flying. The pieces formed a circle in front of her, and they started spinning. "Chaos control!" A huge blast of light washed over him, and he was gone.

Latik stood there a moment. Her face had lost all rage, and now showed shock at what she had just done. Tears were forming in her eyes. I was starting to understand something. If Eggman had created her out of the memories of Tikal, than they should be the same person. But they weren't. One way to prove this was their abilities with the Master Emerald. We have had pieces for a long time, and Tikal could never do what Latik just did. And I doubt that Latik could heal someone with the pieces. Latik could use them in battle, while Tikal could use them for healing. Another piece of proof was that Tikal was extremely strong willed. Even after her father attacks her, she still gets back up to stop Chaos. Latik, on the other hand, was actually rather fradgile.

It was like they were two sides to the same coin.

_Rouge p.o.v_

We all looked at Latik. She had just destroyed Chaos B., and she hadn't given it a second thought. Until now. Even though the sun had set, you could still see the tears in her eyes. She fell to her knees, the pieces of the Master Emerald falling in a circle around her. I was pretty at what she could do with them.

To everyone's amazement, the first one at her side was Shadow. He held his hand out to her to help her up. She looked at them, and you could almost see the silent conversation. Come to think of it, Shadow had brought back Tikal after our first real fight with Latik. Since when could he comfort people?

I actually came up with an answer. I saw him a few weeks ago, and he was the same old Shadow. Then, after I join up with them after the dance, he's a lot looser. The answer was Maria. I guess she just brought out the best in him.

Yeah, right. He was so in love with her.

After their silent conversation, Latik took Shadow's hand. The second she was up, Cream tackled her with a huge hug. "Thank you for saving me, Latik!"

She smiled. "You saved me first."

Cream let go. "Well I need to get home before my mom starts to worry. Bye-bye!" She ran off through the field of lilies.

The second she was gone, Knuckles and Maria both flopped down on the flowers. "Why don't we stay here tonight?" Maria suggested. "The plane isn't exactly meant for sleeping in."

Tikal and Chaos looked at each other, and they flopped down as well. Bokkun was asleep the second he hit the ground. I sat down a bit slower, not exactly ready to sleep. I liked the dark. This is when I felt I could get stuff done.

I was still up when all the others had fallen asleep. I looked around. My jewel senses were tingling. There were some gems around here. I was about to get up and go looking, but Latik was up first. She walked a good distance away. There was something in her hand. Was she about to try to kill herself again?

I walked up stealthily behind her. No, it wasn't a spike. It was Chaos's IPod. Ah, so she was going for a music escape. Please. I had something much better. Nothing helped a broken heart or spirit like a good treasure hunt.

I sat down next to her. "Hey, Sunshine. Aren't you tired yet?"

She looked at me. "No. I don't think I'll sleep at all tonight."

"Good, then go put that IPod back where you found it and follow me."

She blinked, then ran back over to Chaos, placing it back in the exact position she had picked it up. She came jogging back. "So what are we doing?"

"Can't you feel it?" I put my arm around her shoulder. I pointed out towards the middle of the field. "There are treasures just waiting to be dug up. Let's go."

I ran through the field, Latik keeping a steady pace behind me. I reached a small dip in the field, and my senses were going crazy. "Here." I started picking the flowers. "It seems like such a waist to just dig through such lovely plants. Help me pick them. There's a certain someone in the group who would love a bouquet to give to his lover."

"Who?" She asked, squatting down to help.

"Shadow, Sweetie. He is head over heels for his old friend."

"Who's that?"

I looked at her. "Can't you see it? He is seriously into Maria."

"I didn't notice. Though I did notice you like Knuckles."

I turned my back to her to get the flowers behind me, and also so she didn't see my slight smile. "Well, there might have been something there, but he just isn't really my type. Besides, if a man wants me, he's gotta come and get it."

We finally had a good sized flowerless patch, and a rather large bouquet, I looked at Latik. "Can you dig?"

"What do you mean?"

"You were meant to replace Tikal and Knuckles. You should have excellent digging skills. I'd do it, but I don't want to deprive you of the fun."

She rolled her eyes at me, then dug into the ground with some serious force. Once the hole was big enough for the both of us, I dove in and started to help. Soon we had made a pretty big tunnel. I wonder where the jewels were.

I got my answer when Latik hit the wall, and it collapsed, revealing an underground cave. The inside was loaded with precious gems. "Stunning," I said, walking around. "We should do this more often. I quit this line of work for how little it pays, but this is a pretty good load."

Latik walked around, pretty amazed as well. "There all so beautiful."

I dug through some of the jewels and came across a very pretty green one. "My, this would look great on you." There was even a small hole in it already. I pulled out a thin chain I keep in case I do find a good gem. I strung it, then snapped it together. "Here, it'll look lovely with your color."

Latik put it on, and I have to say, I had found a good match. "Thank you." Latik said.

I looked around some more, then a certain gem caught my eye. "What have we here?" I picked up the white gem. "Look at this. We just stumbled across a chaos emerald."

Right after I picked it up, I stopped moving. Behind it was the diamond head of a snake, and it was staring rather intently at me. It had probably been set here to guard the jewels. Not my first security choice, but it was probably still effective.

I started to slowly back up, making sure I kept eye contact with it. "Latik, start leaving slowly."

"Why?" She saw the creature, and did the worst possible thing you could do. Scream. She just let out a piercing shriek. The snake lunged, and I slapped it away. It jumped at me again, but I kicked it. That's when I noticed that the cave had started to shake.

"Latik, run!" I said. We both bolted for the exit. The snake jumped at us again, but the ceiling caved in before it reached us, being crushed. We had been barely two feet into the dug passageway before the room caved in.

We both stood there, still tense, and I started to laugh. "The thrill of treasure hunting!" I continued to laugh, and soon Latik had joined in. We walked back up to the field, where our bouquet was waiting. I picked it up. When we looked in the direction of the cave, the field was perfectly fine. "There must have been another cave above us."

We started walking back to the group, and there was another figure up in the middle of the night. Shadow. Now what was he up to? He snuck over to Chaos, and took the IPod. There was a serious music craze going on tonight. I counted the people sleeping.

I understood. Maria wasn't sleeping.

I quickly ran up to him. Latik close behind. "Going somewhere?"

"It's none of your business, Rouge."

"Fine." I gave him the bouquet. "Give these to her. If you're gonna do it, do it right."

He glared at me, then walked off, the bouquet still in hand. I smiled at Latik. "This is too rich. Shadow trying to be romantic? We have to go spy on them."

We were about to follow, when there was a huge explosion in the sky far off. It looked like a huge ball of fire, and then a small fire ball fell down into the forest behind us. Everyone was waking up. "What was that?" Knuckles asked.

"Who knows? Could have been a bomb. Maybe a missile. Maybe someone from a different dimension entered with a bang. Go back to bed. We'll keep watch. We aren't big on sleeping anyway."

He glared at me, then rolled back over. I looked in the direction of Shadow. He had frozen, hoping that no one would see him. I nodded to him, and he nodded back. He got it. He owed me big time.


	10. Chapter 10

_Rouge p.o.v_

"So, where to next?" Knuckles asked.

Maria had the emerald locator hooked up to a laptop. "Let's see. I'm getting large readings from eggman's base, but that shouldn't be unusual, considering that Shadow sent him two chaos emeralds. That's blocking most chaos energy readings, but I might be able to locate some of the smaller areas."

"Hey, Knuckles!"

We turned towards the forest to see Sonic running over with, surprisingly, Blaze at his side. She didn't look very happy. I hadn't ever really gotten to know her. I did know that she guarded some kind of precious gems. Maybe she had them with her.

Sonic was a bit on the lighter side. "Long time, no see. Blaze has a-"

"You," she interrupted, marching right up to the echidna, "you have some explaining to do. When the Master Emerald breaks, Angel Island falls, correct?"

"Right." He seemed a bit unnerved at this interrogation, and a little annoyed.

"Then tell me what's going on with the Sol Emeralds." She pulled out an emerald cut gem, but it was very dull. It looked like it had once been dark blue, but then covered with dust that would never come off.

Knuckles took it from her. "That doesn't look good."

"This happened a couple of weeks ago. It is also been plaguing my homeland with earthquakes. I assumed it was the same as Angel Island falling."

"Are any of the Sol Emeralds Broken?"

"No; that was my next question. Can anything cause Angel Island to fall without breaking the Master Emerald?"

"Yeah, if Tikal and Chaos," he pointed to them, "aren't inside it."

"That doesn't help me."

Shadow, after hearing this, looked stunned. "Two sides of the same coin," he mumbled.

"What's that?" I asked him.

"When Eggman was explaining the creation of Latik and Chaos B., did he say she was created by the _memory _or _memories _of Tikal?"

"Memories," Bokkun said. "Why?"

He shook his head. "This is bad. Blaze, was there a guardian of the sol emeralds before you?"

"Of course. The ancient text describes them as the Blue of the Cage and the Sunset Shadow."

He started pacing. "This is nuts. Latik wears the armor of the Nocturnus Clan. The Nocturnus Clan lives in the Twilight Cage, and Latik is blue. Chaos B. is as black as a shadow, and his eyes are orange, like a sunset."

I was starting to catch on. "You don't think…"

"I'm almost positive. Just one more question." He turned to Tikal. "Did the Nocturnus Clan ever attack you?"

"Yes, many times. The weirdest was right before I trapped Chaos and me inside the Master Emerald. I ran into this young soldier who was unable to kill anyone after they saw a baby crying by its dead mother."

My mind was completely blown. "Shadow, I think you're right!"

"I am right. Latik and Chaos B. aren't created anti versions of Tikal and Chaos. They are completely different people who are their inter-dimensional counterparts."

We all looked at Latik. She looked stunned. "Why can't I remember any of it?"

"Here," Shadow said, snatching the sol emerald from Knuckles. "Catch."

The emerald sailed at Latik, and she caught it. It glowed, returning to its original color momentarily, but then returned to its dull state.

Latik's eyes were wide. "I remember now. Shadow, you're right."

"Wait, wait, hold on," Blaze said. "This doesn't make any sense. How could she be here if she was in the sol emeralds?"

"You said that the problem with the emeralds started a couple of weeks ago," Shadow said. "That was the same time Eggman 'created' Latik. When he thought he was getting an Anti-Tikal, he was probably thinking that using her memories would give him what he was after. The Master Emerald pieces instead found her counterpart, and must have pulled her out of the sol emeralds, its counterpart, and released her."

"What about Chaos B.?" Maria asked.

I took this one. "Eggman said that Chaos B. was pure negative chaos energy. That was only what he thought. He must have used the pieces for this as well. The way we can prove he isn't pure chaos energy is Maria."

"What?" She asked.

"I saw you turn on that machine that was supposed to immobilize him. It was after he knocked us down. Then Cream starts beating him up because he was moving slower. If he had been pure chaos energy, that should have immobilized him, but he was still up for the fight."

"Now for the big issue," Shadow said. "Latik is able to harness the powers of both the chaos emeralds, Master Emerald, and sol emeralds. This is probably due to the fact that she originated in this world, but then crossed over into yours."

"Why's this a problem?" Blaze asked.

"Because if she can, then Chaos B. can too."

Knuckles caught on. "Oh no. Blaze, you didn't happen to bring all of the sol emeralds, did you?"

"Of course I did. If you had a solution, I wanted to use it right away."

"We need to find the last pieces of the Master Emerald," Knuckles said. "Maria, have you found anything yet?"

She checked her laptop. "Yep. Let's load up."


	11. Chapter 11

_Rouge p.o.v_

"Wow!" Maria said, her face pressed against the glass of the plane, looking at our destination. "We're going there? I can't wait!"

"This is a bit odd," Blaze said. "Do they always go to random places like this?"

I had to admit, the place was pretty impressive. It was a huge amusement park, filled with different rides and attractions. I could sense the pieces of the Master Emerald down there, but there were a bunch of other jewels as well. This would be fun.

"What ride should we do first?" Maria asked excitedly.

"None," Knuckles said, eyeing the roller coasters. "We need to get in there and find the rest of the Master Emerald."

"Aw," Maria said in disappointment. "How about we find the pieces, then go on some rides?"

Knuckles looked back at the park. "No way," I said. "You're afraid of roller coasters."

"I am not!" He said.

"Then you won't mind going on a ride with Maria while we find the pieces."

His face filled with horror. "Fine, I am. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," I said, snickering. The fearless Knuckles taken down by an amusement park attraction. It was priceless.

We landed the plane outside. "Anyone got any money to get in?" Knuckles asked.

When no one spoke up, I sighed, and pulled out a ruby I had snagged from the cave last night. "I guess if we really need to give it up." I walked right up to the ticket booth, and looked at the deals. "May I have," I counted us all, "eight all day unlimited passes please?"

He got them out for me. "Cash or Credit?"

I held up the gem. "How about Carat?"

He took it. "Enjoy your trip." I grabbed the wristbands and handed them out to everyone. Bokkun's wouldn't fit around his arm, so we ended up putting it around his waist.

We all walked inside, and only Maria seemed truly excited to be here. This was fair, since she had never been on earth before Eggman found her, so I guess she had the right to be amazed. Knuckles would never take her on a ride, so it looked like matters would fall into my own hands. Plus I wanted to hear all about Maria and Shadow's date.

"Hey, Knuckles," I said, walking up next to them. "This is a big place. Why don't we split up? Maria, Latik, Blaze, and Tikal can come with me, while everyone else goes with you. When we find the pieces, we can contact each other using the headsets."

He looked at me, seeing right through my plan. Though I could tell he was thinking about how Maria had never been on earth. "Fine, watch out for Chaos B."

I nodded, and the groups split apart, the second they were out of sight, I turned to Maria. "Spill; how did your date go?"

"How'd you find out about that?"

"Latik and I helped Shadow out with it," I said, not wanting to make him look like a complete failure with the bouquet not being his idea.

"Well, it was going well until we were attacked by some snakes."

"Oh, that might have been our fault. We went treasure hunting and there were snakes that guarded the cave. Maybe some got out alive after it collapsed."

"What is the point of a date?" Blaze asked.

We all stared at her. Even Tikal got the point of a date. "Have you never been on a date?" I asked her.

"No. I've never seen a point to it."

"Oh boy," I said. "Anyone want to try to explain this?"

"Well, I think it's a way to grow closer to the person you're in love with." Maria said.

"Have you never been in love?" Tikal asked.

Blaze shook her head again. I sighed. "The second this whole thing blows over, you are going on a date."

"Who would she go with?" Latik asked.

I thought for a moment. A date with Sonic would be suicide as long as Amy was still after him. Shadow had Maria. Knuckles would never agree to it. Tails just wouldn't do. Then it hit me. "I know the perfect person. Since you have no idea what to do on a date, you need to have someone who won't treat it like a date."

"Who's that?" She asked.

"I'm not telling you yet."

"What! You go through all this fuss and you won't even tell me the person?"

"Not yet. Now let's go on some rides."

We went on a good deal of rides, Maria having the time of her life. Blaze wasn't a fan of the taller rides, but did enjoy the ones that spun around. I was more into the con games, which I was extremely good at. Tikal and Latik were having a good time trying all of the carnival snacks.

After we had our good share of fun, we did start looking around for the Master Emerald pieces. Maria contacted the others. "Have you guys found the pieces yet?"

"No," Knuckles said. "We are getting close, though. Meet us at the Ferris wheel." We started heading in that general direction, then soon ran into the others. Knuckles looked rather uncomfortable. It might have been due to the roller coasters, but then again, he was mostly sitting with the Master Emerald. He probably didn't like the crowdedness of the area.

"So where are they?" I asked.

Maria, who had taken out the Emerald locator, looked at a large platform. "Found them."

The platform looked a bit like a dirt arena. "There under there, and the only way to get up there and look for them is to enter there fighting contest."

_Maria p.o.v_

"So, we're all clear with this plan?" I asked.

Shadow, Knuckles, and Latik nodded. They were going to enter into the contest, and when two of them reached the finals, they would dig while fighting, looking for the final pieces. Plus, just to make things interesting, they were all given a piece of the Master Emerald to wield, but only against each other, or if it got dangerous. And the real kicker was the prize: a chaos emerald.

The match started off with Knuckles against some guy. That didn't last very long at all. Soon, it was Shadow up, and his match didn't last very long either. Rouge sighed. "This is dull. Where's the fun in this if no one can even put up a good fight?"

Latik's match was more interesting. She was facing some demented looking guy. He smiled crazily. "Sorry, miss, but I plan on advancing to the next round." Out from inside his shirt he pulled out a sword, and started swinging it wildly around. Latik didn't move until he got right next to her. Then, in a blink of an eye, she was behind him.

The man, realizing she wasn't there anymore, turned around. "You're fast, but I'm gonna still win." He started swinging wildly again. Latik dodged again. The odd thing about this was the fact that she hadn't once looked at her opponent. She had stared at the ground ever since the match had started.

The man came back in for another attack, and Latik raised her head. Her eyes flashed, and her leer was cold enough to stop a charging water buffalo. The man froze in his tracks. With one swift move, she had the sword in her hand. The man started backing up. "Hey, take it easy." Latik pulled the sword back, and thrusted it, but stopped it right in front of his chest.

"Surrender," she said. It wasn't a suggestion.

The man quickly ran off the stage, and Latik had won. Knuckles was back up, fighting another nobody. And he lost! Just kidding. It was as uneventful as his last match. But then there was a battle worth seeing: Latik vs. Shadow.

The two faced each other Latik looking him right in the eye. "You ready?" She asked him, pulling out her Master Emerald piece.

"Always." He pulled out his, and made the first move. Using chaos control, he was right next to Latik, but she had expected this. Using her shard, she put up a large barrier, and when Shadow attacked, he was reflected off.

"Is that the best you can do?" Latik taunted, smiling playfully.

He got up. "Nope." He pointed two fingers, a bit like a hand gun, at Latik. "Chaos spear!" He swiped his fingers through the air, and yellow spears of energy flew at Latik. Latik's piece became surrounded in energy, becoming a long sword in her hand. Wielding it skillfully, she deflected Shadow's attack.

"You have power," Latik said, "but I'm afraid I have more." She started slowly walking up to him. This wasn't looking good for Shadow. How was he supposed to fight someone so skilled in using the Master Emerald for combat?

He smiled. "What a nice sword. Shall we duel?" His piece became surrounded in energy too, becoming a single-edged sword, which he wielded with a backhand grip. I found this to be pretty impressive, though Sonic seemed most surprised at that. "Is that-no, it can't be."

I was about to ask him what, but the battle was far too interesting. They had launched into an amazing sword battle. Where Shadow was getting his amazing sword ability, I didn't know, but I did know that Latik was pretty surprised at this.

After blocking an attack from Shadow, Latik scooped his foot out from under him with her sword, very similar to what Tikal did to her at the dance. Shadow fell, losing his grip on his piece. Latik grabbed it, leapt into the air, and came down, her sword pointed right at his chest.

Just as she was about to reach him, she stopped. Shadow's eyes were intently staring at the blade. Latik smiled. "That was fun, but I'm the winner." Shadow nodded, accepting defeat, then accepted Latik's help up.

"That was a good match," Rouge said. "Now we do some treasure hunting."

Latik and Knuckles were the finalists, and Latik started the battle. She leapt up, spinning as she came down at Knuckles. He moved out of the way, and she just seemed to vanish into the ground, leaving a large hole behind her.

When she popped out of the ground, she had one of the pieces in her hand. When she came in to attack, Knuckles dodged by digging. He popped up, having found the second. They continued like this, and soon Latik had found the last piece.

"Now the real match begins," Sonic said.

We watched them, then I heard Sonic grunt in pain. I looked at him, and screamed. A pure black liquid like snake as big as a car had bitten him, and with a swift movement, bit Blaze too. Was it, dare I say, Chaos B.? Could he have absorbed the chaos emeralds that Shadow had used to transport him away?

"Sonic, Blaze!" I cried. They had both hunched over, and part of the snake's liquid like substance had stayed on them, and was spreading. Soon they were completely covered except their heads. "Sonic, Blaze?" I asked.

"Sonic and Blaze are gone," Sonic said. "I have taken over their consciences. And soon, I will finish the job I was required to do."

Latik and Knuckles had joined us. "You won't get away with this!" Knuckles yelled.

"Oh, but I already have," Blaze said. "I have three of the chaos emeralds, and now all of the sol emeralds. You possess the final four. Give them to me, and your friends will live."

I, without hesitation, pulled out the briefcase. "Here, take them!" I pulled the three out. "The last one is over there on that pedestal."

"Maria, what are you doing?" Rouge asked me.

"Keeping these from him isn't worth the lives of Sonic or Blaze." I threw them to Blaze, and she smiled. Chaos B., the snake, quickly slithered over to the pedestal and grabbed the final one.

He slowly slithered towards Latik. "You are a part of this job," Sonic said. "Come join me, and we will rule this world together, having taken over both sets of emeralds." Rouge was shaking her head at Chaos B. What she was trying to do, I didn't know.

Latik was slowly backing up. Chaos B. just kept getting closer. He was about a foot away from her, and Latik lost it. She tightly shut her eyes, put her hands over her ears, and shrieked. I could feel her screaming in my bones. Chaos B. quickly retreated, gave her one last dirty look, then fled the scene, his two new minions following behind him.

Latik crouched down, tears in her eyes. "She has an extreme fear of snakes," Rouge explained. "That's why we didn't make a smooth exit last night with our outing. She saw the snake, and you got the same result here."

Latik stood up, and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'm fine. We now have to go to the middle of station square."

"Why?" Bokkun asked.

"That's where Chaos B. plans to take us over. He has everything he needs to reach his true perfect form. The final battle is now. It's the chaos and sol emeralds vs. the Master Emerald. If we don't defeat him, then he will kill us, and he wins."


	12. Chapter 12

_Knuckles p.o.v_

"We're fighting that?" Maria exclaimed, looking at the monstrosity that we called Chaos B. Having absorbed the negative energy of both the sol and chaos emeralds, he now looked like a larger version of Perfect Chaos. Multiple black water tentacles were ripping apart Station Square, and the streets were flooded. It was almost identical to when Perfect Chaos went on a rampage. Flying in front of him was his two new minions, both having transformed to their super forms.

"Yes," I said. "Chaos, Shadow and I will transform, and try to fight them. Tikal, Latik, and Rouge, you will use the Master Emerald to assist us. Tikal can use her power of healing, Latik can use her combat skills, and Rouge should be able to assist us in stealth."

"Wait, what?" She said, this being the first time I've ever seen her doubt herself with something that had to do with a jewel. "I'm not a guardian. I don't know how to use that thing."

"Well, this would be a good time to learn." I turned to Maria and Bokkun. "You two need to tail Sonic and Blaze. Let us know if they are close to us, and try to keep them distracted."

Maria pulled out a cube I had never seen before, and it unfolded into a jetpack. "We're on it."

"Let's do this," Latik said. She raised her hands into the air, and an altar made of the road we were on formed. We walked up to the top, and I placed the Master Emerald in the center. Latik, Chaos, Tikal, and I formed a circle around it.

"The servers are the seven chaos," I said.

"Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart," Tikal continued.

_The controller is the one that serves to unify the chaos._ These words radiated outward from Chaos.

"The sol are the heart of the heart," Latik said. "They serve to assist the chaos."

The Master Emerald was glowing brightly, and spinning extremely fast.

"Help us defeat Chaos B.!"

The light washed over us, and I could feel its power surge through me. When the light died down, Shadow had transformed into his cream colored super state. I had transformed as well, but I got the short end of the looks, now being pink instead of red.

Chaos, having used positive energy instead of the negative energy he used last time, wasn't anything like Perfect Chaos. He was pure gold, streaked with blue. The two points that came from the back of his head were longer, reaching his legs, and were now pointed.

We flew into the air. "Here we go!" We flew quickly towards the monster we were fighting. I tried to remember Sonic fighting Chaos in his perfect form. His weak spot was his brain. This shouldn't be too hard.

As we flew in, his water tentacles started flailing about, attempting to knock us out of the sky. We would dodge them or a beam of energy fired from Latik would break them before they hit us. Sonic and Blaze flew forward, hoping to intercept us. Bokkun and Maria were missing.

Suddenly, they both flew out of nowhere, and grabbed hold of them both. In Maria's hand was a grey gem. It was a chaos emerald. "Chaos Control!" In a flash, all four of them were gone. Unexpected, but effective.

We flew at Chaos B. Shadow tried the direct approach: flying as fast as he could right into Chaos B.'s head. The second he touched him, he bounced back, and would have flown out of town if Chaos and I didn't catch him.

"That won't work," he said. "We need a way to break through him. We need someone to cut open his head, someone to keep the cut open, and one of us to deal the final blow."

"I'm on it." I said. I flew towards the girls, dodging Chaos B.'s attacks. "Latik, I need to borrow the Master Emerald!"

They landed on a building. "Catch!" She threw it into the air. I flew to grab it, but it was knocked away by one of Chaos B.'s tentacles.

"No!"

It flew through the air, and one of Chaos B.'s tentacles went to grab it. A yellow beam of energy hit the emerald, sending it flying away. Shadow's chaos spear. Chaos managed to catch the emerald. He started to fly back towards Chaos, but Sonic and Blaze were back. They both charged him. He flew upward, and Maria and Bokkun were back, and teleported them away again.

Shadow, Chaos and I flew in towards Chaos B. His attention was mainly on Chaos, since he was the one with the Master Emerald. Shadow and I flew around behind him, while Chaos charged in from the front. All of the tentacles flew at him, and before they reached him, he threw the Master Emerald to me.

I caught it, then dove in towards the monster. The Master Emerald glowed, and I cut right through him, making a clear path to his brain. I threw the Master Emerald to Shadow, and dove into the cut, starting to fly in a large circle. Soon, you could see all of Chaos B.'s brain.

Shadow through the Master Emerald to Chaos. He raised it above his head, and a huge beam of energy flew from it right into the brain. With a loud roar, Chaos B. melted back down to his original form.

We flew down to him, changing back to our normal forms. Latik, Tikal, and Rouge joined us having glided down from the building. Latik walked up to Chaos B., and, to my surprise, she was smiling. She held her hand out to help her old friend up. "Looks like you lost this one. Why don't we go back to our old life, living peacefully in the sol emeralds?" He sighed, then nodded, accepting her help up. She gave him a huge hug. "I'm glad you're back. Do me a favor and don't ever try to destroy the world again."

Maria and Bokkun came flying back, carrying an unconscious Blaze and Sonic. They set them down, and Chaos B. removed, um, himself from them. Their eyes opened. "Hey, where are we?" Sonic asked.

I sat down. I couldn't help it; I started to laugh. Rouge looked at me. "What's so funny?"

"You look terrible!" I exclaimed. She had been sprayed with muddy water from Chaos B. I looked at Shadow, and laughed even harder. "You're brown!" Shadow had been completely covered in dirty water, and was now completely brown. It was just too funny.

Latik smiled, and was soon laughing too. It wasn't too long before everyone was had done it. We had managed to stop Eggman from taking over the world. Now it was nice to just laugh, not having to worry about anything.

"Thank you all for helping us," Latik said. "But we need to return to our posts." She looked at Blaze, who pulled out the sol emeralds. Latik and Chaos B. touched the dull looking blue one, and in a flash of light, they were gone, the sol emeralds having returned to their original color.

"We should be going too," Tikal said. "Thanks for the fun adventure." They both touched the Master Emerald, and were gone as well.

"Now I should be going," Blaze said, standing up."

"Oh no you don't," Rouge said. "We had a deal."

_Rouge p.o.v_

"You know," Knuckles said, walking with me through the amusement park with me, "I think that this adventure went rather well."

"You think?" I grabbed him, and pulled him behind a booth. We watched as Maria and Shadow passed by, Maria running around excitedly, Shadow following, smiling at her enthusiasm. They both went to the Ferris wheel. There was no line, so they got in immediately.

"Looks like there date is going well," I said. "Now come on, we need to go check on Blaze's date." We walked out of the park, going to this large field, where Blaze was locked in combat. Her opponent would appear for a second, then vanish. She would send out a ring of fire whenever he disappears. Her opponent appeared right next to her, a kunai pointed at her throat. She held her fingers next to his. They stared each other down.

This was Blaze's date with Espio.

"You are very good," he said, moving his spike. "I am impressed."

"You're pretty good yourself," she said. "I wish I could become invisible."

I walked forward. "Well that was a great battle. Espio, I just heard a rumor that you get dizzy easily. Kind of pathetic for a ninja."

"I don't get dizzy."

"Oh really? Blaze doesn't get dizzy; I know this for a fact. I bet you'd get dizzy on the rides in the park before she does."

"Never," he said, walking towards the park. Blaze, trying to conceal her excitement on going on those rides again, walked quickly. It took a bit of manipulation, but they were finally going to do something you would see on an ordinary date.

"I'm guessing you have something to do with that?" Knuckles asked.

"Of course. Blaze had never been on a date, and Espio was the one most fit for going on one with her. The way I made him agree to do it was I bribed him. He hasn't been paid yet, though."

Knuckles looked at the park. "You know, there's a fancy restaurant that I saw there. I'm willing to try it if you are."

"You paying?"

He pulled out a rather bulky wallet. "Chaos B. had stolen this from Eggman. I'm sure he won't miss it."

I smiled. "Then let's go." We reentered the park, and Knuckles was right, it was a fancy restaurant. The food was amazing. We had a good time wondering what Eggman was doing right now, his biggest weapon now gone.

When we finished, the sun was setting. Knuckles sighed. "Well, I need to be heading back to Angel Island. I think it's about time for a peaceful sleep."

"Okay. Thanks for the date!" I ran off before he could come up with a retort. I saw Shadow and Maria again going onto another ride. I doubt they would be leaving anytime soon. I saw Espio and Blaze get off one of the spinning rides, and they were both laughing, walking a little unsteadily.

I walked up to them. "Having fun?"

"Of course." Blaze said, still smiling.

"Well, Espio, you're end of the bargain is done. It's sunset. You're free to go."

He nodded. "See you all again." He ran off, becoming invisible.

"He likes you," I said to Blaze, smiling.

"How can you tell?"

"I hired him to go on a date with you, and he didn't have me pay him."

She smiled a bit. "Well it was pretty fun. I must be going. My detention needs my return."

"Have fun, wild cat." I walked off, wondering what to do next. Then again, I could always start with getting my job back. G.U.N was going to kill me. Oh well. We had managed to save the planet.

And my date went rather well too.


End file.
